Wounds
by wowy319
Summary: Set after book 3, Wounds follows the efforts of Ling, a worker at the Mental health facility Azula is kept in, to restore Azula's damaged mind. The task is difficult, and Ling is risking his life by doing so. But all wounds heal given time and care...
1. Chapter 1

Wounds

"…and you are not to let her out of your sight. She hasn't done anything but sit there since her admission, but the Fire Lord has told us that she's a very skilled manipulator. Ling! Are you paying attention?" The hypnotic effect the uneven stone walls had on Ling was momentarily broken by the shout, and he found the will to half-focus on the instructions given to him. He rubbed his eyes and scratched his head, watching strands of his short brown hair fall onto his uniform, blending in with the dull shades of grey and black.

"Uhm… I get that I'm supposed to take care of her, take her to the mess hall and make sure she doesn't get hurt, but I don't see how all the security is going to cure paranoia, Renshu. If we want her to get better, we should treat her like a patient, not a prisoner." Ling looked into his superior's eyes for a moment, manipulating the hem of his vest, then locked his gaze on Renshu's chin, silently congratulating himself on a new record for eye contact with something other than his reflection.

"Ling, you know perfectly well why we can't risk any breaks in security. Azula is a firebending prodigy, regardless of her mental health. If she gets violent, we need people who can subdue her before she causes any serious harm." Ling heard the name, his eyes distant as he shook his head. _Princess_ _Azula_, He thought,_ I never would have thought she'd end up here, of all places._ "She's not doing anything, though. Shouldn't security wait until she's actually responding? If nothing else, it's a waste of manpower. We already have people in here who need to be in restraints." He sighed as his next few seconds of eye contact gave him his answer. "Fine, I'll do my job. But I still say the guards are totally unnecessary."

"Orders are orders, Ling. Now follow me; it's time to meet your patient."

---

Ling kept quiet as he walked a few steps behind Renshu. He kept his focus on the lumpy, uneven wall, his eyes attempting to trace patterns and pictures in the haphazard stone. Out of nowhere, he spoke, cutting what had been a comfortable silence. "Hey, Renshu," he said.

"What is it, Ling?" Renshu asked, a subtle note of irritation beneath his voice.

"You know the walls here?"

"What about them?" Renshu asked, giving the worker a sidelong glance

"Uh… they're… forget it." He mumbled, going back to finding order in the walls. _Sometimes I hate talking to sane people._

They walked in silence, and Ling lost interest in the disorganized walls. _Those walls_ _must have been hewn by someone with the coordination of a boar-q-pine. They look terrible._ Ling shifted his attention to the floor in front of him, looking at the various cracks and scuffs on its surface. "Well, this is it. Go in there and introduce yourself." Ling looked up at the iron door and sighed. _I can't believe this. Maximum security? She's catatonic!_ The two guards nodded their helmeted heads and stepped away from the door, snapping to attention. Ling peeked through the window and frowned.

The first thing that stood out was her hair. Locks of it hung at uneven lengths, disheveled and unkempt. _Nobody did anything to fix her hair. Did I walk into the right building today? I'm starting to think this is really a prison._ Ling sighed, knitting his eyebrows. Her robe, at least, was clean. Granted, Ling noted, it was the same robe every patient wore; the folks who doled them out had to keep them clean if they wanted to keep what little they made. Taking another good look at the young woman sitting on the scuffed floor as she stared at the wall, Ling pushed open the door to the room.

Azula didn't react when the metal door hinges shrieked (though Ling made it a point to wince), staring at the uneven wall. Ling made a series of small folds in the hem of his vest for what felt like the thirtieth time since he talked to Renshu, then walked next to the former Firelord. "So, uh… do you see any pattern in that mess of a wall? I can't seem to find any in that mess."

No response.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

No response.

"You know, if you don't say anything, I'm just gonna think you're not objecting."

Ling carefully sat down a few feet from Azula, perpendicular to her position. "I'm sorry, but I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Ling, your caretaker. I'm here to escort you around the facility and make sure your stay here is a pleasant one. Does that sound good to you?"

The wall continued to hold Azula's attention, and Ling's eyes flitted from the floor to the exit.

_This is gonna take some work._

Three weeks had passed, and Ling was losing both hope and patience. Azula wasn't responding to anything, not even complaining about anything. She did everything automatically, moving, eating and sleeping like a machine rather than a young woman. Unless prompted to, she sat on the floor and stared blankly at the wall until she either fell asleep. The only time she moved was when they walked to the mess hall, and this particular constitutional was as quiet as ever. Ling frowned. _I've never had a patient stay this blank. Most of them at least smile, look around, or at least start getting difficult by now._ "You know, I'd rather you were screaming at me like my last patient than just staring into space. At least then you could let me know how you were feeling."

Azula walked even-paced next to him, staring at the floor as though he'd said nothing.

Frowning again, Ling stared at the floor, folding and spindling a corner of his vest as he walked. Between Azula's persistent silence and the constant presence of guards, that particular corner of his vest had already worn thin to the point of being threadbare. _It isn't right. It isn't going to help to have all this security! What was Renshu thinking, accepting an order like that? Did he even think at all? What kind of--_

Ling's mental rant was cut short by the sharp counterpoint of hot soup spilling down his front when one of the cleaning crew walked face-first into him. Gritting his teeth and taking a sharp breath, Ling looked up at the clumsy worker, who still held his bowl with a dumbfounded expression. For a moment, Ling stared at his nose (never at the eyes, no, not even now), eyes wide and intense. "I'm curious," Ling said quietly, "why do you have food outside the mess hall?" The cleaning worker opened and closed his mouth before stammering "I, uh, I was hungry, and it uh, it was my break, and…"

Ling's patience reached its limit.

"Did you even think for a second that you could have eaten in the mess hall?" Ling shouted, "That the mess hall is the only place you're allowed to eat, which everyone is told on their first day? Do you even think at all? Go get a mop and clean this up! You're lucky I didn't smack you for this!" Ling gestured wildly as he berated the worker, pointing his finger at him and glaring at his forehead. The young man ran away from Ling in terror. _He'd better be going to the supply closet if he has any sense in his head_, Ling thought with no small amount of venom.

As the worker rounded the corner, he heard something from Azula's direction. It was over almost as soon as it registered, but he could have sworn it sounded like a laugh. He looked at the young woman he presumed catatonic, and saw a sign of progress: a smile. _It isn't exactly a nice reaction… but I'll take what I can get._


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's note: Short chapter, I know. For as long as I've taken, this should be longer. But with college and such, the third chapter might take a little longer. I can promise though, the wait will be worth it. This isn't the end for Ling and Azula._

Ling looked up at the open sky and sighed, a smile on his face. "You know, it wasn't easy to convince Renshu to let me take you out here. He wouldn't shut up about how much of a risk it was; he didn't even consider it until I told him about your little bit of progress. Even then, he still had to have guards following us." He looked over to Azula, who sat on the bench next to him motionless. She frowned as Ling mentioned the guards, who stood at attention about six paces from the bench.

Ling watched for more signs of emotion eagerly, hoping his constant talking would prompt more responses. "He's not a bad person, you know. He's just by-the-book. If he's given orders, he follows them to the letter. If someone breaks the rules, he doles out the punishments regardless of the circumstances." Azula narrowed her eyes, looking straight ahead. _Probably time to change the subject, _Ling thought. "But that's his business, not mine. It's a boring subject, I know. But that's how things go here, really. There isn't too much to talk about when things are kept so quiet. But at least we got to go outside, right?"

Azula turned her head and stared at Ling. Ling forced himself to make eye contact, and was struck by the intensity of her stare. Doing his best to match her gaze for a few moments, he looked for any more of a reaction. She continued to stare at him for a few more seconds, before returning her attention to whatever was in front of her. _More progress every day; I think I'm finally getting somewhere._

---

It would seem Renshu shared Ling's optimism, because he granted Ling the authority to take Azula outside the building for an hour a day. Ling wasn't sure if he'd heard Renshu correctly the first time he'd said it, but his supervisor had approved it. He still wasn't sure if Renshu was kidding or not. It still took a lot of convincing that the potential progress outweighed the risks involved. The conversation they had was less heated than he'd feared, but having to argue his point to someone so firm was less then pleasant.

"Based on the progress that we've been making, I think that the time outside is a good thing for her;" Ling said, looking resolutely at the space next to Renshu's head, "She's been much more responsive, and actually displays emotional reactions to given topics. I think that given more visits outside like yesterday's, she'll continue to improve."  
Renshu looked at him, trying to make eye contact. "I think that you're playing a risky game. You keep ignoring the fact that she's very unstable and violent. You've told me before that in her current state she's harmless, but her reacting to certain stimuli means that her harmlessness won't last forever.

"I'm going to allow this to continue, but I want this to be clear: you own this. Any success or failure that comes from these trips, whether they're negligible or outstanding, they're your responsibility. The guards will stay with you, and there's no negotiating that at all. I really do hope this works and that she improves, but I'm looking at it realistically; you've got your work cut out for you."

---

"…and three years after it happened, Thanh still tells me that it was Pan who used my vest to clean the mess hall tables. I wouldn't have minded if it was the first time something like that happened. But this was the third time that he'd ruined something of mine. I haven't been able to trust him with my things since."

Ling thought he saw Azula twitch, but it happened so fast he wasn't sure. Whether it happened or not, it wasn't enough of a reaction to suit him. The daily visits outside had worked well for the past two weeks, and Azula had begun to react to things he said (albeit with frustration). _Come on, you were rolling your eyes when I told those horrible jokes last week. Something's got to make you talk._

Before Ling fully thought it through, he asked her a question. "Have you ever had a situation where someone you trusted hurt you? It's hard to cope with, I know, but—"

Before he knew what had happened, Azula had tackled him to the ground. _Oh, no. Bad topic. _He tried to turn his head away as she punched him in the face repeatedly, but only lined up his left eye with a solid blow. Colors flashed behind his eyelid, and he felt the area around the eyeball swelling. He felt hopeless, even afraid. But then she spoke.

"Stop talking! Don't you dare talk to me about that, you filthy commoner!" The guards grabbed Azula by the shoulders and pulled her off Ling. He found himself making eye contact for a brief moment before he felt her nails scratch at his left cheek and part of his nose. He cried out (more from shock than anything else) and forced himself to look at her eyes once more; he looked away quickly for the second time, shuddering. _She hates me,_ he thought, _she looked at me like I was nothing…_


End file.
